


Ghost of a Lion

by Xila



Series: Journey [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Drama, Gen, Multi, Other, Romance, Season/Series 03 Spoilers, Season/Series 04 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-02
Updated: 2018-01-02
Packaged: 2019-02-27 11:45:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13247559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xila/pseuds/Xila
Summary: The likelihood of the Paladins coming across another spatial anomaly seemed unlikely, but with a little help from Pidge's creation, the Paladins race off to uncover something that will undoubtedly shake the foundation of their team and change Voltron forever. Unbeknownst to them, Lotor and his generals are not far behind and even they may not be able to escape the mysteries and danger that await.





	Ghost of a Lion

Hunk was nervous. 

It was not an uncommon occurrence for the Yellow Paladin to show a resounding level of restraint and caution in situations that could only be described as “dangerous” but there was something particularly unsettling about the thundering ring echoing throughout the Castle of Lions this morning.

So when Pidge ran by the kitchen, carrying an unusual looking gadget, he took a moment to steady himself—times like this served to remind how much of a toll being a Paladin of Voltron could take—and then he was running out of the kitchen, and right on the Green Paladin’s heels. Together, the pair moved quickly towards the bridge where they knew the others were sure to converge.

“So what exactly is that noise and do I need to be more freaked out than I am cause I can definitely do that!” Hunk had quickly positioned himself behind her and was looming overhead as the contraption continued to emit its cry with no indication of stopping.

Pidge, feeling the sudden heavy breathing at her neck jumped and turned on the spot.

“First things first, never do that again,” she said, stepping away him. “Second, I’m not exactly sure…” Her attention shifted down to the machine and the look of concern could not have been more obvious.

“Well that’s not exactly reassuring, Pidge” said Shiro, announcing himself as he entered the bridge behind them. 

“Whatever it is, does it at least have a volume button?” Lance was not far behind, both hands moving to cover his ears as he peeked around to inspect the machine for himself.

A scowl came over Pidge’s expression as she rolled her eyes in his direction. “Oh, I’m sorry. I guess that feature wound up slipping my mind while I was busy considering the ‘End of the World’ implications a trans-dimensional comet could have… You know, like the last time.”

“Hold on a sec, what are you talking about, Pidge?” Leaning on the wall behind them, was Keith, whose attention had now piqued and the word ‘trans-dimensional’ had not been lost on Allura or Coran either as they all moved towards the center of the bridge.

Pidge set the device down before running a hand through her hair. 

“Well after the whole alternate reality experience, I got to thinking that the likelihood of another anomaly, while highly unlikely, isn’t necessarily outside the realm of possibility either. If it happened, I wanted us to have the ability to detect it so we could be better prepared than the last time.” 

No one needed a reminder of the events surrounding the last anomaly and the comet that was at its center. Their encounter with Alteans from another reality was still a subject of varying sensitivity. On top of that, Lotor had gotten the better of them and his intentions were still a mystery that required solving. Since thwarting his attempts to steal a teludav lense from a Galra base, they were no closer to locating him again.

“In other words, you’re saying that your device—” Allura began.

“Is picking up another spatial anomaly,” finished Shiro

Pidge nodded. “Basically.”

“So how exactly does this work, Pidge?”

Pidge sighed, crossing her legs beneath her as she picked the device up again. “Well without getting too technical, I’ve basically constructed this to take the unique trans-dimensional properties that are found within Voltron and look for them in other places.” 

She lifted the box above her head, allowing the others to properly see it. “The alarm means that we’ve entered a radius in which this little guy can finally do his job and it’ll get progressively louder the closer we get to it. I hadn’t considered how annoying it would be but now I sort of regret not coming up with something more pleasant.”

Lance laughed aloud. “You don’t say. That thing’s unbearable.” 

Pidge stared at him, unamused.

"It's fine," Shiro said, patting her brown hair gently. “It was good thinking on your part to even consider something like this, Pidge, but I have to wonder how accurate it is.”

Coran put a hand on Shiro’s shoulder, squinting his eyes at the device apprehensively. “What do you mean by that, Shiro? Do you think there’s some kind of risk?”

“I’d say risk is pretty unavoidable… My question is which set of properties is Pidge’s machine picking up. Something new or something we’ve already encountered before.”

Allura gasped. “You believe it could be the comet Lotor acquired.”

The group collectively turned to gaze at Shiro but his attention was now on Keith, whom had not taken his eyes from the box. 

“What are you thinking, Keith?”

Keith crouched down beside Pidge, observing the box. For a moment, it seemed like he might say something, but instead he shook his head and stood back up again.

Shiro’s brow furrowed. “Keith?” 

“I don’t think it’s Lotor,” he murmured. “Pidge, how long have you had this thing completed?”

Pidge hesitated, thinking for a moment. “Not too long, really. I had the idea while we were in the alternate reality and I didn’t wait long after we returned to test my theories. Why?”

Keith gave her a calm, searching look, as he pulled his thoughts together. The idea that this could be Lotor didn’t sit well with him but why? It was the more obvious conclusion but that didn’t mean it needed to be the only conclusion. The timeframe was also weird if the idea was for this to be Lotor. They had recently come across his group and nothing had happened but couldn’t that be open to manipulation? 

“You finished it before Lotor’s attack on the Galra base?”

She nodded slowly.

“If that’s the case then maybe we should rule out Lotor,” he said before he started pacing off towards the control panel.

The group waited for Keith to say something more, but he seemed to be lost in his own thoughts again. Lance approached him, observing the Paladin as he seemed to be a million miles away before waving a hand in his face.

“Earth to Keith? You got anything more to add or are we just supposed to rule out Lotor because you said so?” 

Keith paused and turned around. His eyes seemed to take in Lance for the first time and then he remembered the others. “Yeah, right,” he said hurriedly. “It’s just, we’ve encountered Lotor in the time that Pidge finished this thing and got no reaction. It doesn’t seem as though her machine acknowledges the comet that Lotor stole which means we’re probably looking at something completely different.”

A frown came over Hunk as he cautiously took the box from Pidge’s outstretched hands and turned it over to look at it more. “Are you sure though? What if Lotor is like doing something and setting us up?”

“I’m not wrong,” Keith said simply.

“Heard that before,” Lance muttered offhandedly. 

“Look, the timeframe supports it so we should treat this as something new and investigate.”

“Doesn’t it strike you as odd that a device meant to hone in on trans-dimensional properties doesn’t? Does no one else see a problem with that?”

The atmosphere on the bridge was beginning to turn tense as Keith and Lance stared down one another.

“You’re overthinking it,” Keith said, working to keep his voice calm.

“Is that right? Lance said, throwing his hands up wildly. “Our great leader, Keith has an idea so that’s it? The idea of another anomaly or whatever is somehow more reasonable to you than Lotor, the guy who’s already fooled us on more than one occasion, setting a trap for us and waiting so we can just blindly fly in and get our butts handed to us again?”

Keith groaned and pressed a hand to his face. “What? No, you’re a moron,” he grumbled. He brushed the hair from his eyes, giving Lance an irritated look before turning to the others. For some reason, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was different about this and he didn’t know why but they needed to check it out. If that meant he had to sell the idea of Lotor, then so be it.

“If you want, let’s say this was Lotor’s doing. What does that change? Are we really going to just ignore this opportunity when we haven’t had a single lead on him since we scraped by at that Galra base? It’s not like I’m saying we ought to rush in blindly but we’ve got to check it out. It’s an opportunity no matter how you look at it.”

“Maybe so but we don’t know enough,” said Allura softly. 

“Right, so then let’s change that for once,” Keith finished.

Shiro sighed. “Keith might be right about this being an opportunity but Lance has a point about Lotor having the upper hand on us on more than one occasion,” he said before turning to Pidge. “Is there anything you can do to improve our chances of identifying the source?”

Pidge tapped her chin in thought before smiling. “Shouldn’t be too hard. The basic concept was to alert us to the presence of a spatial anomaly so now that we’ve done that, I think I can adjust it and determine the scale of what we’re looking at. If we compare the trans-dimensional properties of Voltron to whatever this anomaly is, then I expect it’ll read exponentially higher. From there, we should be able to estimate within reason whether this is the comet Lotor stole or something else entirely without doing anything too risky.”

Shiro smiled. “Good. Are we all in agreement about this?”

The others glanced at one another before looking at Lance, whom had not taken his eyes from Keith.

He sighed and dug his hands into his pocket. “So long as we aren’t doing something completely stupid. The last thing we need is to fall for another one of Lotor’s games but if anything was going to get us through this, I’d bet money on Pidge and that annoying box of bolts.”

There was still something going unsaid as he glanced at Keith who seemed satisfied with the results and already focusing his attention elsewhere. He couldn’t put his finger on it but something seemed off.

The room seemed to settle as everyone released a collective sigh to signify that things seemed to finally fall in place. A plan was formulating and now the Paladins could move once again. 

That was a start.

**Author's Note:**

> Well, here we are. I had a few doubts when the idea for this story came to me but I couldn't let it go. This story takes what we got to see from Season 4 and sort of expands on it in ways. I personally felt that we were given a lot of interesting plot lines in the most recent season but there was not a whole lot of explanation for why some of the characters changed the way they did between the third and fourth season. 
> 
> This is just my way of coping, I suppose. I have an idea for Keith that you'll see in this first part to what will hopefully be a series and so hopefully you enjoy.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading!! Please let me know what you thought, whether good or back. I appreciate all feedback on my work.


End file.
